by Cheryl Kottke

Created on: September 29, 2008   Last Updated: September 30, 2008

I am an avid bird watcher. Just outside my living room window, I have three suet feeders, two thistle seed, and a large general birdseed feeder hanging. I sit and watch the blue jays, cardinals, finches, and nuthatches invade daily. Unfortunately, I also see the squirrels attacking my bird feeder.

Extremely irritated at seeing one particular squirrel, which we nicknamed, Skippy, constantly stretched out from the Shepherd's hook my feeders are hanging from I grabbed a bottle of Vaseline and ran outside. Smearing a handful of Vaseline up and down the pole, I couldn't wait until that little blighter decided to come back for his next meal.

It didn't take long before he was jumping onto the pole. Immediately, he started sliding downward and his paws were furiously trying to get a good grasp as he slid back to the ground. This tactic worked for a while but the Vaseline didn't.

After spending a small fortune in Vaseline, I thought maybe WD-40 would last longer on the pole. Again, it didn't last long enough and the little blighter was again, stretched across my bird feeder.

I decided to try a slinky. I bought a slinky and dropped it around the top of the pole, bunching part of it around the top so that it only hung half way down. When stretched out it hit the ground. I again sat and waited for the squirrel.

When he returned he jumped up on the pole, grabbing the slinky. When he bounced back to the ground he stood and stared at the pole like, "What happened?" Again, he tried with the same results. This worked until of course the slinky stretched out enough he could grab a hold of the pole.

When the squirrel had learned to get past the slinky, I went and bought a baffle to put around the pole under the feeders. Skippy soon learned he could jump from the roof to the top of the pole and get to the feeder.

One day I looked out my window and Skippy was hanging upside down by his tail. His tail had gotten caught in between the top of the hook and he was desperately trying to get loose. Without even thinking about it, I ran out the front door and headed toward the bird feeder to help him down. He suddenly started squirming in mid air with his tail tightly caught in the adornment of the pole. Just as I reached the pole, he jumped to the ground and took off running. The sad part was the end of his tail was still in the pole! Now I started calling him "Stubby".

He still kept raiding my bird feeder on a daily basis until it was completely empty. At this point, I had bought a collie who loves to watch the birds on the bird feeder. He sits and watches them through the window eating. He loves birds! He hates squirrels though.

Every time Stubby would come into the yard, my collie would just about go through the window. Eventually, Stubby stopped coming by because of my collie.

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